1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sheet feed apparatus and an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine, a facsimile machine, a printer, or other similar image forming apparatus.
2. Discussion of the Background
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-139197 bulletin discloses a sheet feed apparatus that can separate one sheet of a plurality of stacking sheets by contacting each sheet with a tilt face of a tilt member. The sheet feed apparatus includes a separation means. The separation means includes a separation guide as the tilt member, and a high friction member. A coefficient of friction between the high friction member and the sheet is bigger than both a coefficient of friction between the sheet and the separation guide and a coefficient of friction between the sheet and the next sheet in the plurality of sheets. Therefore, one sheet can be conveyed by the separation means from stacking sheets.
In conventional systems, a sheet feed apparatus includes a feed roller contacting a tilt member with a separation means. However, in the conventional sheet feed apparatus there is problem in that the surface of the tilt member is easily worn or otherwise damaged when receiving a load by friction caused through contact with the feed roller. Once worn, the sheets are not consistently fed from the sheet feed apparatus, leading to missed pages, jammed pages, or other operational deficiencies. What is desirable, as discovered by the present inventors, is a sheet feed apparatus where the surface of the tilt member is not easily damaged from the friction associated with feeding sheets.